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Kaypro Corporation
Type Corporation
Founded 1981 (now defunct)
Headquarters San Diego, California
Key people Andrew Kay
Industry Computer hardware
Products Computers

Kaypro Corporation, commonly called Kaypro, was an American home/personal computer manufacturer of the 1980s. A corporation is a separate legal entity usually used to conduct business California ( is a US state on the West Coast of the United States, along the Pacific Ocean. Andrew F Kay (born c 1922 is President and CEO of Kay Computers a personal computer firm and also serves as Senior Business Advisor to Accelerated Composites For other uses of this term see Industry (disambiguation An industry (from Latin industrius, "diligent industrious" Typical PC hardware A typical Personal computer consists of a case or chassis in a tower shape (desktop and the following parts Motherboard In Marketing, a product is anything that can be offered to a Market that might satisfy a want or need A home computer was a class of Personal computer entering the market in 1977 and becoming common during the 1980s A personal computer ( PC) is any Computer whose original sales price size and capabilities make it useful for individuals and which is intended to be operated The company was founded by Non-Linear Systems to develop computers to compete with the then popular Osborne 1 portable microcomputer. Non-Linear Systems is an electronics manufacturing company based in San Diego, California. The Osborne 1 was the first commercially successful portable Microcomputer, released in April 1981 by Osborne Computer Corporation. Kaypro produced a striking line of rugged, portable CP/M-based computers which supplanted its competitor and quickly became one of the top selling personal computer lines of the early 1980s. CP/M (Control Program for Microcomputers is an Operating system originally created for Intel 8080 / 85 based Microcomputers by Gary Kildall

While exceptionally loyal to its original consumer base, Kaypro was slow to adapt to the changing computer market and the adoption of IBM PC compatible technology. IBM PC compatible computers are those generally similar to the original IBM PC, XT, and AT. It faded from the mainstream by the end of the decade and was eventually forced into filing for bankruptcy in 1992. Bankruptcy is a legally declared inability or impairment of ability of an individual or organization to pay their Creditors Creditors may file a bankruptcy petition against

Contents

History

Kaypro began as Non-Linear Systems, a maker of electronic test equipment, founded, in 1952, by Andrew Kay, the inventor of the digital voltmeter. Andrew F Kay (born c 1922 is President and CEO of Kay Computers a personal computer firm and also serves as Senior Business Advisor to Accelerated Composites A voltmeter is an instrument used for measuring the Electrical potential difference between two points in an electric circuit

In 1981, Non-Linear Systems began designing a personal computer, called KayComp, that would compete with the popular Osborne 1 transportable microcomputer. The Osborne 1 was the first commercially successful portable Microcomputer, released in April 1981 by Osborne Computer Corporation. In 1982, Non-Linear Systems organized a daughter company named the Kaypro Corporation and rechristened the computer with the same name.

The first product, the Kaypro II, carried the Roman-numeral designation because the most popular microcomputer at the time, other than the IBM PC, was the Apple II. Roman numerals are a Numeral system originating in ancient Rome, adapted from Etruscan numerals. The Kaypro II was designed to be portable like the Osborne. (When laptop computers became available, the larger machines came to be called transportable or luggable, rather than portable. ) Set in an aluminum case, it weighed 29 pounds (13 kilograms) and was equipped with a Zilog Z80 microprocessor, 64 kibibytes of RAM, and two 5¼-inch double-density floppy-disk drives. The pound or pound-mass (abbreviation lb, lbm, or sometimes in the United States #) is a unit of Mass Zilog Inc, often seen as ZiLOG (the official company denotation in 1998 through Jun 2007 is a manufacturer of 8-bit, 16-bit, 24-bit The Zilog Z80 is an 8-bit Microprocessor designed and sold by Zilog from July 1976 onwards A microprocessor incorporates most or all of the functions of a Central processing unit (CPU on a single Integrated A kibibyte (a contraction of ki lo bi nary byte) is a unit of Information or Computer storage, established by the International Double density, often shortened DD is a capacity designation on Magnetic storage, usually Floppy disks It describes the use of an encoding (or Modulation A floppy disk is an increasingly Obsolete data storage medium that is composed of a disk of thin flexible ("floppy" Magnetic storage medium encased It ran on the CP/M operating system of Digital Research, Inc., and sold for about US$1,795. An operating system (commonly abbreviated OS and O/S) is the software component of a Computer system that is responsible for the management and coordination Digital Research Inc (aka DR or DRI; originally Intergalactic Digital Research) was the company created by Dr 00.

By mid-1983, Kaypro had dropped the price to $1,595, and was selling more than 10,000 units a month—briefly making it the fifth-largest computer maker in the world. Year 1983 ( MCMLXXXIII) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link displays the 1983 Gregorian calendar) The Kaypro II's market success was due to a number of factors: it had a larger screen than the Osborne; it came bundled with third-party application software (PerfectWriter and PerfectCalc, later to be replaced by MicroPro's WordStar and CalcStar); and it was supported by a network of trained dealers. Application software is a subclass of Computer software that employs the capabilities of a computer directly and thoroughly to a task that the user wishes to perform WordStar was a Word processor application published by MicroPro, originally written for the CP/M operating system but later ported to DOS, that The boxy units were so popular that they spawned a network of hobbyist user groups across the United States that provided local support for Kaypro products. A users' group (also users group or user group) is a type of Club focused on the use of a particular Technology, usually (but not always The United States of America —commonly referred to as the Kaypro's success contributed to the eventual failure of the Osborne Computer Corporation. The Osborne Computer Corporation (OCC was founded by Adam Osborne in 1980 based on a product of not just Personal computers but Portable

Kaypro published and subsidized ProFiles: The Magazine for Kaypro Users, a monthly, 72-page, four-color magazine that went beyond coverage of Kaypro's products to include substantive information on CP/M and MS-DOS; frequent contributors included Ted Chiang, David Gerrold, Robert J. Sawyer, and Ted Silveira. MS-DOS (short for M icro' s' oft D isk O perating S ystem is an Operating system commercialized by Microsoft. Ted Chiang (born 1967 is an American Speculative fiction writer David Gerrold, born Jerrold David Friedman ( January 24, 1944) in Chicago Illinois, is a Science fiction author who started his career Robert J Sawyer is a Canadian Science fiction writer born in Ottawa in 1960 and now resident in Mississauga.

Another popular magazine that covered Kaypro computers was Micro Cornucopia, published at Bend, Oregon. Micro Cornucopia was a 1980s microcomputer magazine for hobbyists and enthusiasts published in Bend, Oregon by David J Bend is the County seat of Deschutes County, Oregon, United States, and the principal city of the Bend Oregon Metropolitan Statistical Oregon ( is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States.

Following the success of the Kaypro II, Kaypro moved on to produce a long line of similar computers into the mid 80's. Exceedingly loyal to its original core group of customers, early machines ran on the CP/M operating system. In 1985, Kaypro began producing IBM compatible MS-DOS machines, the Kaypro 16 (transportable, same form factor as the original), the Kaypro PC, Kaypro AT (a 286 machine), the Kaypro 386, and the Kaypro 2000 (a rugged aluminum-body battery-powered laptop with a detachable keyboard). The slow start into the IBM clone market would have serious ramifications.

After several turbulent years, with sales dwindling, Kaypro filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in March 1990. Chapter 11 is a chapter of the United States Bankruptcy Code, which permits reorganization under the Bankruptcy laws of the United States Despite restructuring, the company was unable to recover and filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in June 1992. Chapter 7 of the Title 11 of the United States Code (Bankruptcy Code governs the process of Liquidation under the Bankruptcy laws of the In 1995, its remaining assets were sold for $2. 7 million. [1]

The Kaypro name briefly re-emerged as an online vendor of PCs in 1999, but was discontinued in 2005 by its parent company Premio Computers Inc. due to sluggish sales. [2]

Kaypro founder Andy Kay re-emerged from the final failure of Kaypro with a second company, called Kay Computers, utilizing a similar sales strategy.

Kaypro computers

Hardware

The original Kaypro II, taken from an advertising poster from 1982.
The original Kaypro II, taken from an advertising poster from 1982.

Kaypro's first computer, the Kaypro II (differing only in bundled software from the model 2) had a 2. 5 MHz Zilog Z80 microprocessor, 64 KiB of RAM, dual, single-sided, 191 kB 5¼ inch floppy disk drives, and an 80 column green monochrome 9" CRT. Zilog Inc, often seen as ZiLOG (the official company denotation in 1998 through Jun 2007 is a manufacturer of 8-bit, 16-bit, 24-bit The Zilog Z80 is an 8-bit Microprocessor designed and sold by Zilog from July 1976 onwards A kibibyte (a contraction of ki lo bi nary byte) is a unit of Information or Computer storage, established by the International A floppy disk is an increasingly Obsolete data storage medium that is composed of a disk of thin flexible ("floppy" Magnetic storage medium encased The cathode ray tube (CRT is a Vacuum tube containing an Electron gun (a source of electrons and a Fluorescent screen with internal or

Early in the Kaypro’s life, there was a legal dispute with the owner of the Bigboard computer who charged that the Kaypro II main circuit board was an unlicensed copy or clone. The Big Board (1980 was a Z80 based Single-board computer designed by Jim Ferguson and sold primarily through Digital Research Computers of Texas (not to be confused A printed circuit board, or PCB, is used to mechanically support and electrically connect Electronic components using conductive pathways or traces

The outer case was constructed of aluminum. WikipediaNaming The computer featured a detachable keyboard that covered the screen and disk drives when stowed. In Computing, a keyboard is an Input device partially modelled after the typewriter keyboard which uses an arrangement of buttons or keys A display device is an Output device for presentation of Information for Visual or Tactile reception acquired stored or transmitted The Kaypro ran off regular AC mains power and was not equipped with a battery. An alternating current ( AC) is an Electric current whose direction reverses cyclically as opposed to Direct current, whose direction remains constant In electronics a battery is a combination of two or more Electrochemical cells which store chemical Energy which can be converted into electrical energy

The Kaypro IV and later the Kaypro 4 had two double-sided disks. The Kaypro 4 was released in 1984, usually referred to as Kaypro 4 '84, as opposed to the Kaypro IV released one year earlier and referred to as Kaypro IV '83.

The Kaypro 10 followed the Kaypro II, and featured a 10 megabyte hard drive and a single 5¼" floppy drive. A megabyte is a unit of Information or Computer storage equal to either 106 (1000000 Bytes or 220 (1048576 bytes depending on A hard disk drive ( HDD) commonly referred to as a hard drive, hard disk, or fixed disk drive, is a Non-volatile storage device

Kaypro later followed their CP/M machines with MS-DOS-based computers in the Kaypro 16, Kaypro PC and others, as the IBM PC and its clones gained popularity. MS-DOS (short for M icro' s' oft D isk O perating S ystem is an Operating system commercialized by Microsoft. Kaypro was late to the market, however, and never gained the kind of prominence in the MS-DOS arena that it had enjoyed with CP/M. Instead, Kaypro watched as a new company Compaq, grabbed its market share with the Compaq Portable, an all-in-one portable computer that was similar to Kaypro's own CP/M portables with the exception that it ran MS-DOS and was nearly 100% IBM compatible. Compaq Computer Corporation was an American Personal computer company founded in 1982 and is now a brand name of Hewlett-Packard. This and other corporate issues helped lead to Kaypro's eventual downfall.

Software

CP/M was the standard operating system for the first generation of Kaypros. An operating system (commonly abbreviated OS and O/S) is the software component of a Computer system that is responsible for the management and coordination The first application software that came with the Kaypro II included a highly unpopular word processor called Select that was quickly dropped in favor of an office suite from Perfect Software which included PerfectWriter, PerfectCalc, PerfectFiler, and PerfectSpeller, as well as Kaypro's own compiled S-BASIC (which produced executable . Application software is a subclass of Computer software that employs the capabilities of a computer directly and thoroughly to a task that the user wishes to perform A compiler is a Computer program (or set of programs that translates text written in a computer language (the source language) into another com files). PerfectFiler featured non-relational, flat-file databases suitable for merging a contact list with form letters created in PerfectWriter. PerfectWriter itself was initially just a rebranded Mince and Scribble from Mark of the Unicorn, which was itself a CP/M implementation of the (then) mainframe Emacs and Scribe using BDS C. This is about the professional audio company For other uses see Motu MOTU ( Mark of the Unicorn) is a Music -related Emacs is a class of feature-rich Text editors usually characterized by their extensibility A scribe (or scrivener) is a person who writes books or documents by hand as a profession Later on MBasic (a variant of Microsoft Basic) and The Word Plus spellchecker were added to the model II suite of software. MBASIC is the '''M'''icrosoft '''BASIC''' implementation of BASIC for the CP/M operating system Microsoft BASIC was the foundation product of the Microsoft company The Word Plus included a set of utilities that could help solve crossword puzzles or anagrams, insert soft hyphens, alphabetize word lists, and compute word frequencies. An anagram ( Greek anagramma 'letters written anew' passive participle of ana- 'again' + gramma 'letter' is a type of Word play Another utility program called Uniform allowed the Kaypro to read disks formated by Osborne, Xerox, or TRS-80 computers. TRS-80 was Tandy Corporation 's desktop Microcomputer model line sold through Tandy's Radio Shack stores in the late 1970s and early

The initial bundled applications were soon replaced by the well-known titles WordStar, (a word processor with MailMerge, for personalised mass mailings), the SuperCalc spreadsheet, two versions of the Microsoft BASIC interpreter, Kaypro's S-BASIC, a bytecode-compiled BASIC called C-Basic, and the dBaseII relational database system. WordStar was a Word processor application published by MicroPro, originally written for the CP/M operating system but later ported to DOS, that SuperCalc was a Spreadsheet application published by Sorcim in 1980, and originally bundled (along with WordStar) as part of the CP/M A spreadsheet is a Computer application that simulates a paper worksheet Microsoft BASIC was the foundation product of the Microsoft company In Computer programming, BASIC (an Acronym for Beginner's All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code) is a family of High-level programming languages CBASIC is a Compiled version of the BASIC Programming language written for the CP/M Operating system by Gordon Eubanks dBase was the first widely used Database management system (DBMS for Microcomputers published by Ashton-Tate for CP/M, and later on the A relational database is a Database that groups data using common attributes found in the data set

Using the comma-separated values (CSV) file format (better known at the time as CDF or comma delimited format or comma delimited file), data could be moved between these programs quite easily, which enhanced the utility of the package. The comma separated list (CSL is a Data Format originally known as comma-separated values (CSV in the oldest days of simple computers A file format is a particular way to encode information for storage in a Computer file. The manuals assumed no computer background, the programs were straightforward to use, and thus it was possible to find the CEO of a small company or somebody else developing the applications needed in-house. A chief executive officer ( CEO) or chief executive is typically the highest-ranking corporate officer ( executive) or administrator

The Kaypro II and later models also came with some games, including versions of old character-based games from earlier days (for example, Star Trek), and a few of which were arcade games re-imagined in ASCII, including CatChum (a Pac-Man-like game) and Ladder (a Donkey Kong-like game). American Standard Code for Information Interchange ( ASCII) is an Arcade game developed by Namco and licensed for distribution Ladder is a clone of Donkey Kong, written for the CP/M operating system. is an Arcade game developed by Nintendo, and released in. It is an early example of the platform genre as the Gameplay focuses on maneuvering the main

All this software if bought separately would have cost more than the entire hardware and software package together. The Kaypro II was a very usable and (at the time) powerful computer for home or office, even though the painted metal case made it look more like a rugged laboratory instrument than an office machine. They enjoyed a reputation for durability.

Later MS-DOS Kaypro computers offered a similar software bundle.

Kaypro by model and year

Kaypro's nomenclature was odd, with the numerical designations for their machines having more to do with the capacity of the drives than the order they were produced. Kaypro also released several different models with the same names, perhaps hoping to capitalize on the name recognition of their older machines. As a result, identifying exactly which model a Kaypro is often requires an inspection of their hardware configuration.

All of the computers listed below are of the portable type unless otherwise noted.

Kaycomp I - The original Kaypro, was a demonstrator model shown mainly to prospective dealers. It had the same case as future models, but was painted green with two single sided floppy drives that were mounted vertically on opposite sides of the monitor like the Osborne I, its intended competition.
Kaypro II - The first commercially released Kaypro, was an immediate success, dominating over its competition, the Osborne I microcomputer. The Kaypro II had a 9 inch internal monitor instead of the Osborne's tiny 5 inch display, and double sided floppy drives with twice the storage capacity. A redesigned version of the Kaypro II was released in 1984 that allowed block style graphics, and had half-height drives. This version of the Kaypro II had a version of Space Invaders along with the typical ASCII games.
Kaypro IV - An evolution of the Kaypro II, the Kaypro IV had two DS/DD drives (390 kB) and came with Wordstar in addition to the Perfect Suite of software.
Kaypro 10 - The Kaypro 10 was one of the earliest computers to come standard with a hard drive. A hard disk drive ( HDD) commonly referred to as a hard drive, hard disk, or fixed disk drive, is a Non-volatile storage device It came with a 10 megabyte internal hard drive and a single DS/DD floppy drive. All of the computers produced until then had been green or light grey or grey and blue, but the K10 was dark grey, almost black.
Kaypro 4 - The Kaypro 4 was virtually identical to the IV, but featured half-height drives instead of full height drives, a 4 MHz clock speed and had basic graphics capabilities. It also had an internal 300-baud modem.
Kaypro Robie - The Kaypro Robie was the only CP/M based Kaypro to be non-portable. Designed as a desktop computer, it had the same motherboard as the Kaypro 4. It was also equipped with two 2. 6 MB high density floppy drives and a 300 Baud modem. The floppy drives were notorious for failing as they literally scraped the media off of the disk substrate, leaving many customers with drives which they could not read. The Robie was jet black, with the drives mounted above the screen, and the front panel angled upward. The Robie did not sell well, but it did make periodic cameo appearances on the ABC television series Moonlighting, as the desktop computer used by Bruce Willis' character David Addison. Moonlighting is an American Television series that first aired on ABC from 1985 to 1989 with a total of 67 episodes Walter Bruce Willis (March 19 1955 is an American actor and Singer-songwriter. Due to its black color, the fact that it sat upright and looked like a helmet, and its handle mounted on the top, it was nicknamed "Darth Vader's lunchbox. "
Kaypro 2X - The Kaypro 2X was similar to the Kaypro 4, but it featured a built in 300 baud modem. Kaypro 2X's were often sold in a bundle with an impact printer.
Kaypro "New" 2 - A scaled-down Kaypro 2X for the budget buyer, came with minimal software, and did not feature the internal modem.
Kaypro 4+88 - A dual system computer, the 4+88 was equipped with both an 8088 processor and a Z80, and was capable of running both the MS-DOS and CP/M operating systems. The Intel 8088 is an Intel X86 Microprocessor based on the 8086, with 16- Bit registers and an 8-bit external Data bus It came with 256 KB of RAM for the MS-DOS operating system that could double as a RAM disk for CP/M. A RAM disk is a software layer that enables applications to transparently use RAM, often a segment of Main memory, as if it was a Hard disk
Kaypro 16 - Very similar in appearance to the Kaypro 10, the Kaypro's 16's main difference was that it had an 8088 processor and 256 KiB of RAM and ran on the MS-DOS operating system instead of CP/M.
Kaypro 2000 - Kaypro's first and only laptop, it was an MS-DOS machine that ran on heavy lead-acid batteries. Strikingly similar in basic appearance to a modern laptop, it featured a detachable keyboard, rugged brushed aluminum casing and a pop-up 3. 5 inch floppy drive. In what seems to have been a recurring comparison, it has been called "Darth Vader's laptop".
Kaypro PC - Late on the PC market, the Kaypro PC was intended as a competitor to the IBM PC-XT desktop machine. The IBM Personal Computer XT, often shortened to the IBM XT or simply XT, was IBM's successor to the original IBM PC. Running at a faster clock speed than IBM's machine, it was available with a larger hard drive than that offered by IBM and an extensive software package. It featured the motherboard on a bus card, which, like the Zenith Z-series machines, promised upgradability.
Kaypro 1 - The Kaypro 1 was the last CP/M model Kaypro introduced. In most ways, it was simply a Kaypro 2X with a smaller software package. It is distinctive from earlier Kaypro models because of its vertically oriented disk drives.
Kaypro 286i - A 12 MHz 286 desktop, with a faster clock speed than IBM's machine, a larger hard drive than IBM's configuration and an extensive software package. It featured the motherboard on a bus card, which, like the Zenith Z-series machines, promised upgradability.
Kaypro 386 - A 20 MHz 386 desktop, with an extensive software package. It featured the motherboard on a bus card, which, like the Zenith Z-series machines, promised upgradability.

Kaypros in popular media

References

  1. ^ * US Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit (2000). Arrow Electronics v. Justus 9955210. Retrieved April. 1, 2006.
  2. ^ PC World. (May 22, 2001) http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,50725-page,1/article.html - Accessed: March 15, 2007

External links

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